Проблема українського вокатива: хитання між мовними прескрипціями і мовною практикою

In the general context of a gradual greater or lesser narrowing of the functioning of the vocative case forms in the common Slavic language space (up to their actual disappearance), in the Ukrainian language this category, although it remains one of language's distinctive features, also shows an increasing tendency towards limitation (with a combination of both internal and especially external factors – influences from the Russian language). Consequently, in already independent Ukraine, when society started paying more attention to the language issues, the problem of returning the mentioned grammatical category to full-fledged functioning also became relevant. Within this period, one can note quite obvious increased use of vocative case forms, but this is mainly manifested in recommendations of normative sources and in the language of translated literary and film production, as well as, although to a significantly lesser extent, in the field of official communication and in texts of a high style, that is, mainly not in spontaneous (living), but in «edited» language practice. In addition, one can observe a growing tendency towards normatively unsanctioned use in nouns of the first declension with a stem ending in a hissing sounds the vocative case with the inflection -о: магараджо, рикшо, Гаркушо etc. The combination of two factors, normative aspirations for the consistent introduction of vocative case forms for masculine and feminine nouns in address position and the current real state of their functioning in a living language, makes the issue of the Ukrainian vocative one of the most complex in a series of linguistic phenomena that are considered «repressed» in the past and therefore need to be revived.